Kazakhstan 2023

Visited: November 2023

Duration of visit: 6 days

Capital city: Astana

Population: 19 million (2023)

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes

• Almaty – the former capital, known as the birthplace of apples, Zenkov Cathedral and vivid coffee scenery.
• Cold and rainy days in modern Astana.
• It is hard to be a vegetarian in Kazakhstan, where almost all traditional dishes are based on meat.
• Even fast growth and internationalization of the country hasn’t improved the knowledge of English among citizens.
• Connection with the nature, multiethnicity, multicultural and openness to various religions.
• Wide use of electronic payments, especially Kaspi app.
• Big Almaty Lake – hiking along the water pipeline to the picturesque lake.

In autumn 2023, Kazakhstan was the last country on my trip through Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Little time and cold weather forced me to focus only on two main cities: Almaty and Astana.

While it is not entirely appropriate to assert that the two main populated areas accurately reflect the whole country, I have nonetheless formed certain impressions of the ninth largest nation, known for having the longest border in the world.

In this article I describe the first part of my Kazakhstan visit: Almaty – business, education and tourism center, a vegetarian in a meat nation, from Akmola to Astana, world class architectural landmarks in Astana, World Expo 2017, Big Almaty Lake.

More articles about my adventures in Kazakhstan are available here:

Almaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of over 2 million, located in the southeast corner near the border with Kyrgyzstan, nestled in the picturesque landscapes at the foot of Zailiski Ala-Tau mountain. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 until 1997, when the government relocated the capital to Astana, while Almaty is still considered a hub of business, education and tourism.

The name Almaty is believed to come from the Kazakh word for apple “full of apples”, based on the abundant wild apple diversity.

I settle down in a small, but well-maintained Airbnb apartment, which was already heated and warm. I try to get the most out of the day, knowing that the weather forecast for the next day is rain.

Since Almaty is a really big city and main attractions are scattered around, excellent and inexpensive public transport network, combined with taxi, was just right for me. For a difference with other metropolises in the region, inexpensive metro (0.20US$ per ride) offers only a single line. Underground stations are far from being as impressive as in some other cities of ex-Soviet Union.

I quickly notice how little cash Kazakhstani use for daily transactions. Electronic payments are executed through Kaspi, a leading ecommerce banking app, which, unfortunately, I am not eligible to use as a foreigner on a short visit. Taxi drivers often don’t have any change, if I pay in cash. Bus tickets cannot be purchased directly from the drivers, credit cards are not common, but still accepted. I usually board a bus and ask somebody to scan the QR code for me and pay through Kaspi app, while I pay them back in cash.

The cafeteria scene is extensive, with coffee shops at every corner.

It seems that ground floors of apartment buildings are mostly dedicated to business offices, shops, cafeterias, bars, restaurants, money exchange offices, etc. Street blocks are long, avenues wide, road intersections large, timers above the traffic lights are counting down the seconds until the green light appears.

People are very friendly.

A cable car takes me to the top of the hill Kok Tobe, at 1,100 meters above sea level, where a spectacular view over Almaty with the mountains in the background opens.

The famous Statue of the Beatles is the only attraction that calls my attention.

Amusement park, zoo, souvenir shops, playgrounds with slides, swings, a climbing wall, a children’s playground and restaurants block the view over the city, but apparently attract the citizens to be entertained. Air pollution, caused by mineral mining and processing, oil and gas production, is evident with yellow clouds drawing a line above the metropolitan area.

Down in the city again, I pass by the Hotel Kazakhstan, the first high-rise building in the city, still the symbol of Almaty. The ancient bus in the parking lot in front of the hotel somehow does not fit the desire for modernization, but it serves as an excellent opportunity for a photo.

Zenkov Cathedral, an historical Russian Orthodox cathedral, is the second tallest wooden church worldwide (after Săpânța-Peri Monastery church in Romania), constructed between 1904 and 1907.

A unique feature of this wooden building is that it was erected practically without any nails.

The five-domed and three-aisled cathedral, with a built-in bell tower, was only slightly damaged by an earthquake in 1910, when almost all buildings in the surrounding went to ruins.

The real hard period fell during the Soviet rule. In 1927, the Soviet government ordered to close the cathedral, which led to robbery, destruction of library and removal of the bells. Finally, in 1995, local authorities decided to return its religious importance, and after restoration works, orthodox services began to be held in the cathedral.

Only seldom visitors lit candles in complete silence, pray and calmly observe the beautifully decorated interior of the cathedral. Similar to some of the other attractions in the city, here too, the trees in the immediate vicinity obscure the view for flawless photography.

The Green Market is one of the oldest marketplaces in the city, where trade has been carried out since 1868. The present-day market edifice, in the style of Soviet constructivism, was built in 1975 and it was under renovation at the time of my visit.

A wide variety of fruits, vegetables, smoked fish, and dry fruits are on sale at competitive prices. Especially well stocked are sections of honey and meat, where dozens of women exhibit perfectly cut pieces, while chatting on their smart phones and waiting for the customers.

The renowned Medeo Skating Ring in Almaty is the highest Olympic-sized skating rink in the world, famous for being the world’s biggest high mountain skating rink, covering an area of 10,500 m². Hockey, figure skating, and speed skating are practiced there; however, I am unable to visit it due to unfavorable weather conditions.

The same happens with Charyn Canyon and Big Almaty Lake, which are off limits during my visit. A good reason to come back in the summer.

It is lunchtime and I pass a bustling restaurant, where people are entering to eat.

“Let`s try the food where locals go for a lunchbreak,” I think and set foot in a no name self-service Kazakh restaurant.

The canteen offers six types of soup, dozens of main dishes, salads, desserts, bread snacks and drinks. After investigating around for a few minutes and being explained by one of the cooks, I order pumpkin soup, puffy bread filled with cheese and compote. All other dishes contain meat; salad is not appealing.

Well, yes, almost all Kazakh dishes are based on meat: beshbarmak, kuyrdak, syrne, laghman, manti and most of the soups.

Although Kazakhstan theoretically doesn’t top the list of countries with the highest meat consumption, I have real troubles to find meatless food.

Fruits, bread and pastry are the main dishes on my menu, beside international food that is easily available. At the end of autumn, apples, persimmons and grapes of delicious, natural flavor, are available in markets or specialized fruit stores around the city.

Many varieties of delicious bread are on sale in Kazakhstan: shelpek – a traditional flatbread, tohax – round-shaped bread, characterized by a large indentation in its center; baursak fried bread with a puffy appearance, is fried only for special occasions. Samsa is a savory, baked pastry stuffed with meat and sometimes with vegetables. The dough can be a simple bread dough or a layered pastry dough.

Astana was chosen to be the new capital in 1997 and, since then, it has grown into one of the most modern cities in Central Asia. Beside the city transformation from a patch of land to a modern metropolis, also the name changes have an interesting story.

Initially, Akmola or Akmolinsk in Russian, was renamed to Tselinograd until 1997, when named Astana for the first time. Currently known as Astana, it was titled Nur Sultan (named after the first President of Kazakhstan Nur Sultan Nazarbayev) from 2019 until 2022.

The planned city of Astana has been built from practically nothing in only a few decades.

Several of the world’s most iconic architects were granted unrestricted creative freedom to undertake the monumental challenge of conceptualizing an exceptionally distinctive city.

The central landmarks of the city – observation tower Baiterek, Palace of Independence, the shopping and entertainment center Khan Shatyr and Palace of Peace and Reconciliation in the form of a pyramid, are just some of the highlights in a city that also hosted the World Expo 2017.

The capital of Kazakhstan is one of the planned cities around that world that were chosen to become the capital for particular reasons, transferring government offices and creating new residences when another main city had been already well established.

Almaty has always been the biggest city in Kazakhstan, but it is located in the extreme south, almost bordering with Kyrgyzstan. Due to several advantages in the long-term, Astana was chosen as the capital: favorable geographical position, proximity to the major economic centers of the region, considerable demographic capacity, good transportation facilities and plenty of space to create large urban areas.

When Kazakhstan became an independent country in 1991, Russians represented the majority of the population. President Nazarbayev needed to avoid the danger of Northern Kazakhstan separating or joining Russia by creating a new capital out of nothing, located in the middle of the country, that would bear his stamp. The city started to develop in 1997, when it was only an empty patch of land by the Ishim River, best known as a former gulag prison camp for the wives of Soviet traitors.

25 years later, Astana can be proud of being a cleverly planned, organized, well-distributed city, offering visitors a day or two of intense sightseeing, diplomats and government employees good working conditions and its inhabitants high quality standard of living … if we ignore the fact that climate conditions are not under human control nor responsibility and there is very little life in the radius of 1,200 kilometers around the city!

A discouraging weather forecast turns out into a rainy day with temperatures around 5°C, grey sky and some wind. I prepared well in advance, bought a jacket already in Dushanbe and rented an umbrella in the hotel. I quickly realize that locals don’t use umbrella, are not concerned with being wet, nor stepping in a puddle on the street. My sport shoes are facing the end of their lifecycle, my feet wrapped in a plastic bag are quickly soaked with water that accumulates on pavements.

The first stop was planned to be the Museum of the First President of Kazakhstan, dedicated to the indestructible Nursultan Nazarbayev, who was governing the country from its independence until 2019, when, under fierce protests, he was finally forced to resign. The taxi driver brings me to another direction, where a Nazarbayev Center is located, so I am slightly upset for this misunderstanding and change the plan of the route to approach the Central Concert Hall and the Presidential Palace first.

A large platform with restricted access to regular traffic connects a wide area where some security guards are the only people around. Covered in raincoats, they supervise passing vehicles, while I am the only pedestrian walking around in this unpleasant weather. It is freezingly cold, my fingers are dulled, I can’t make any good photos and I am afraid to freely walk around, as the guards oversee all of my movements.

I stroll along central Nurzhol Boulevard towards a monument and observation tower, called Baiterek, the most emblematic building in Astana. The statue is meant to embody a folktale about a mythical tree of life and a magic bird of happiness. A young tour guide accompanies me through the tower, elevating within the shaft to the observation deck within the egg-shaped upper part, explaining about the surrounding buildings visible in the distance.

From the observation platform, 97 meters high, commemorating the year when Astana was named the capital, I can get spectacular views over the new city, though limited by clouds today.

On the top floor, I put my hand on ex-president Nazarbayev’s gilded hand print of the right hand, while looking to his former Presidential Palace.

Usually, crowds of visitors want to take a photo with their hand on the golden mold, but this time I am one of the few people around.

No waiting this time!

I continue walking toward the south, passing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The tallest building in Astana – Abu Dhabi Plaza Tower– raising up to 320 meters, seems to be empty. The upper part is covered with fog. The headquarter of national oil transport company, KazTransOil, possess impressive offices, but at the same time, blocks the view to the end of the avenue.

As the grand finale of this long walk, I finally reach the biggest tent structure in the world, designed by famous British architect, Norman Foster.

Khan Shatyr is actually a shopping center under a transparent, slightly lop-sided tent, built in a neo-futurist style, hosting luxury brand shops and restaurants distributed on various floors. The transparent material of cushions allows sunlight through, while maintaining a stable internal temperature, despite large variation through the year outside.

Sky Beach Club is a unique attraction on the top floor, where a swimming pool with sand beach, aquapark, toboggans, deckchairs and a bar offer a unique ambience 365 days a year. Mostly families with kids come to enjoy this distinctive environment in a landlock country.

A 3.00US$ ticket enables me to tour the facilities for 15 minutes. Especially in the winter, with outside temperatures below -30°C, swimming, sunbathing or walking on sand imported from Maldives in summer temperatures could be appealing.

The Palace of Peace and Reconciliation is the second structure designed by British architect Norman Foster in Astana. In the form of a pyramid, the building offers much more space inside, than what is visible from the outside. I am once again offered a free tour around the pyramid, with explanation about construction, usage and events that take place in this iconic building. Three levels represent underground, life and heaven.

The Pyramid contains accommodations for different religions, hosts a 1,300-seat opera house, a national museum of culture and other institutions that express the spirit of Kazakhstan, where cultures, traditions and representatives of various nationalities coexist in peace, harmony and accord. This strong message to host different religion and spiritual leaders around the table and openly discuss in harmony, has been stressed out on various occasions during the tour.

Astana was a host of a very successful World Expo Exhibition in 2017, visited by 4 million people, under the motto Future Energy: Action for Global Sustainability. New ideas about technology, society, and the planet were presented in over 110 countries pavilions.

Not much of the original exhibition is left today, but an eight-storey spherical building, called the Nur Alem, in form of an enormous illuminated globe, still hosts the Museum of Future Energy – an exhibition about energy.

One of the very few buildings in the world in a form of a sphere, 100 meters tall and 80 meters in diameter, is remarkable. The museum consists of eight floors, representing the main types of energies: hydro, kinetic, biomass, wind, solar and space energy. A great place to finish exploration of this futuristic city.

It finally stops raining in the late evening, so I decide to go back to the area where I started my city tour early in the morning. The visibility is better, the illumination, as always in Kazakhstan, superior. I successfully take some good photos of Astana at night, before heading to the airport.

My flight is scheduled for 3:30am, but soon a 6 hours delay is announced by the airline. We wouldn’t take off before 10:00am, since the inbounding plane was redirected to Tbilisi due to a psychopath threat to the cabin crew.

“We will start to check-in at 5:00am. You can go home or wait around here!” a representative of Pegasus airline explains to me.

After finding out that the flight from the same company was also cancelled the night before, I am convinced that I would lose my connection flight in Istanbul, as well as a bus from Budapest to Slovenia.

I entertain myself with an English teacher and her husband, discussing about Kazakhstan, lifestyle, history and future, for the next two hours, when the unexpected check-in process starts. What seemed to be a nightmare eventually turns into a tense exchange of means of transport, which brought me home exactly on schedule the same evening.

The foremost reason for my return to Almaty in 2024 was to explore the Big Almaty Lake, which had been inaccessible during my previous late autumn trip in 2023.

This natural alpine reservoir is situated in the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains, approximately 15 kilometers south of Almaty’s city center, at 2,511 meters above sea level. The lake features a coastline of 3 kilometers and reaches depths of 30 to 40 meters and also serves as a source of drinking water for the surrounding region.

Although most tourists prefer to hire a car with a driver for a half-day visit to the lake, we (I was travelling with a friend) opted for a one-way taxi ride and planned to find our own way back to Almaty.

After paying for a park entry ticket, we continued the ride for a few kilometers to reach the ramp, where only walking, electric bicycles, electric motorbikes, or organized transport are allowed. The costs of renting a (motor)bike or participating in a guided tour were prohibitively high, leading me to decide on walking to the lake. I took a shorter route that primarily follows the pipeline transporting water from the lake to the valley.

The forest path, which includes steps in certain areas and is clearly marked, is steep but considerably shorter than the winding road that stretches over 10 kilometers.

In just over an hour, I was captivated by the sight of a breathtaking turquoise lake surrounded by majestic mountains, each rising around 4,000 meters above sea level.

Most of the other visitors were locals of diverse age and physical ability, with a few foreigners from Asian countries present as well. I snacked on some light food I had brought and descended to the lake’s shore. The most impressive view was from a mid-level position. The weather was remarkably beautiful, with clear sky and no wind, allowing nature to display its splendor.

The descent proved to be significantly easier and quicker.

I had previously decided to approach one of the locals who had parked their vehicle next to the ramp, and ask for a ride to Almaty. Fortunately, my efforts were rewarded on the first attempt. The young owner of a tourist agency graciously offered us transportation to the city, and during the journey, she provided a tour of the nearby village, which boasts numerous tourist amenities, including restaurants, hotels, spas and swimming pools.